A Ninja's Guide to Surviving a Shinobi War
by JA-Japster
Summary: When Naruto unexpectedly returns from exile, he brings with him the key to victory: a suicide mission deep behind enemy lines. A squad of Shinobi will leave on a quest to end the war, but none of them will return home the same, if at all. Slightly AU
1. Chapter 1: Three Years Later

A Ninja's Guide to Surviving a Shinobi War  
By: JAJapster

Copyright Stuff: I don't own anything in the contents of this story. Please don't republish this story without asking permission. That is all.

Summary:  
Slightly AU –It has been three years since the flames of war engulfed Konoha and the rest of the world, claiming the lives of hundreds of thousands. When Naruto unexpectedly returns, though, he brings with him the key to Konoha's victory: a suicide mission deep behind enemy lines. A squad of Shinobi will leave on a quest to end the war, but none of them will return home the same, if at all.

**Chapter One: Three Years Later...  
**

The soft humming noise that filled the spacious cargo bay of the T36 Nighthawk Transport was relaxing, threatening to lull First Lieutenant Nara Shikamaru to sleep as he rested his head against it. The plane rocked and bumped every time they ran into an air pocket or a particularly strong gust of wind, but this did little to distract the young Shinobi. Ever since he had been commissioned as a Chunin and then promoted to Jounin over the last several years, it seemed like he spent the majority of his days traveling in the back of airplanes, being whisked around the world to wherever his duties required. He was used to turbulence; in fact, he was so accustomed to being rocked and jarred to sleep it that he sometimes found it unsettling lying in his own bed.

"Five minutes, sir!" shouted the pilot from the cockpit. A bulb overhead lit up, bathing the cargo bay in an eerie green glow.

The insulated interior of the transport did an efficient job of isolating them from the rest of the world, fooling them, if only momentarily, that their plane was some kind of invulnerable sanctuary soaring through a raucous storm.

However, Shikamaru knew that if the airplane had a window to look out of, he would see an ocean of flickering lights erupting less than a mile beneath their position. Each flash represented an explosion of enemy shrapnel, a cloud of deadly metal shards that would rip through the transport's hull like paper.

If they were lucky, the fragmented pieces of jagged steel would kill them all instantly. If they weren't, the plane's engines would sputter and die, sending the smoldering wreckage spiraling through the air until it crashed into the forest below where they would slowly burn to death.

It was a morbid thought, but it was one Shikamaru had trouble keeping out of his mind every time they flew over this particular stretch of forest in Kusa. It was called the Airplane Graveyard for a reason. Dozens, if not hundreds, of aircrafts, both Konoha's and their enemies', had been sniped out of the sky by anti-aircraft batteries. Fly too high and you'd show up on someone's radar as a juicy target for their surface-to-air missiles. Fly too low and you'd end up as another entry in the growing list of aviators that the forest had claimed.

"You need to relax," Ino whispered. Most of her face was hidden behind the balaclava and combat helmet she was wearing, but Shikamaru could still see her bright blue eyes shimmering brightly in the dimly lit cabin. Traces of blond hair cascaded from beneath her helmet, draping down her shoulders and spilling over the olive flak vest that all Konoha Shinobi wore into battle. Shikamaru thought she looked beautiful.

"This is so troublesome," Shikamaru muttered. "All this risk for one person."

Their mission was as basic as it was stupid.

A patrol somewhere in the woods below had gotten separated off from their platoon when armies from Earth and Lightening had unexpectedly attacked. The platoon, having sustained heavy casualties, retreated out of the forest with their dead and wounded, and the remainder of the patrol was promptly surrounded. As of their last update from three hours ago, they were completely cut off, low on ammunition and supplies, and were in danger of being overrun at any moment.

Unfortunately for Shikamaru and Ino, one member of the patrol was the son of a high-ranking Konoha councilman. Within minutes of the news that the councilman's son was in danger, the Hokage had given them the assignment to enter the forest, find the kid and get him out safely.

"Orders are orders," Ino replied, stroking his arm gently. "Don't worry. We'll get in, find him and be back at base before dawn."

"Yeah, right," Shikamaru snorted. If everything went well, they would land close to the patrol's position, find the councilman's son, and with their elite Shinobi training, manage to smuggle him out from beneath the noses of at least a hundred enemy soldiers who were armed to the teeth with machine guns, rocket launchers and night vision goggles. The odds of everything going that smoothly, though, were slim. More likely, their information would be wrong and he and Ino would spend the next few days scouring the forest for the patrol, only to find the members of the patrol all dead.

It was a pointless waste of their time and Shikamaru resented the fact that they were putting their lives in jeopardy just to rescue one soldier because of his political connections.

"Three minutes!" The pilot glanced back and smiled at Ino warmly. "Good luck ma'm."

"Thank you, Captain," Ino said sweetly. She had given the pilot a kiss on the cheek for good luck when they had lifted off. He was smitten now, just like any other poor sap that had the misfortune of being on the receiving end of Ino's shameless flirting.

It had been three years since they had abruptly graduated from Konoha High and were forced on to the front lines of war. They had both been through a number of battles and lost many friends, but it never ceased to amaze Shikamaru just how little Ino had seen to grow up during that time. In a way, though, Shikamaru was glad for this. It reminded him of better days days, back when they still had their childhood innocence and youthful optimism.

"Thirty seconds!"

A door in the transport's floor slid open and the deafening roar of rushing wind immediately filled the cabin. Shikamaru peered down at the landscape as it tore by, wincing as gusts of icy cold air tore at his skin. It was too dark to see the ground, but every few seconds, the night would be illuminated by a flash of light as another barrage of shrapnel detonated far too close for comfort.

It was hard to believe they were about to jump into that, without a parachute no less. A parachute would slow them down enough that a sniper might blast them on the way down. Hurtling through the sky and using their chakra to cushion their landing was the only way they'd make it to the ground in one piece. It was hardly ideal, but it was better than the alternative.

"Good luck!"

Ino leaned over, pulled down her mask and gave Shikamaru a long kiss on the lips, "I'll see you on the ground!"

And with that, the two Shinobi leaped out of the airplane and into the darkness.

* * *

Hyuga Hinata sighed as a relaxing breeze swept through her blue hair. Her feet dangled freely over the edge of Konoha's towering city gates, swaying back and forth as the young Hyuga leaned back and enjoyed the evening's tranquility. She gazed upwards, her pale eyes dancing over the stars that interwove to form intricate, sparkling patterns in the night sky. It was moments like these that she treasured, momentary respites from her normal routine of chaos where she could afford the luxury of merely sitting there, completely without worry and entirely at peace.

Hinata wiped some stray blood off her hands on to the dirty scrubs that formed a voluminous cloak around her diminutive form. She had just gotten off a double shift at Konoha's medical ward and hadn't even bothered to change before heading out. The emergency room where she worked as a surgeon could be overwhelming at times. Working all day (often futilely) to patch together the dying was taxing on her sanity, and yet, because of Hinata's ability to recognize chakra flow and other important vitals in the human body, she was one of the most suited Shinobi in the village for the job.

Today, she simply needed to leave and get some fresh air as soon as possible. A young Shinobi, no older than Hinata, had been wheeled in only an hour earlier with most of his lower torso missing. He had been airlifted all the way from the front, and it was a miracle that he hadn't bled out on the way. A special anti-Shinobi mine, an explosive that detonated when it detected a chakra signature, had torn the poor man almost in half.

Hinata had used her chakra to help alleviate his suffering, but there was little that she or any of the healers could do. He was dead within minutes of arrival.

"Evening, ma'am," one of the city gate sentries said, tipping his helmet respectfully as he passed by. Hinata smiled in return. The guards knew to expect her -she came to the top of the city gate every night after her shift ended for an hour or so before returning home.

Part of the reason was to escape the hospital. The other reason, though she would never admit this to anyone if asked, was the faint hope that one day she might see a familiar blond haired Shinobi approach the very gate she had seen him disappear through three years earlier. It was a silly wish, she knew, hoping that Uzumaki Naruto might suddenly return from exile, but she refused to abandon it.

It had been three years, three months and sixteen days since Naruto had left Konoha in pursuit of the traitor, Uchiha Sasuke, and no one in Konoha had heard from him since. One rumor had him living in Lightening country helping a resistance movement. Another claimed he had died shortly after leaving Konoha.

Still, that hadn't stopped Hinata from dreaming that one day she would see her friend again.

"Hinata?" A teenage girl who looked remarkably like Hinata was standing nearby.

"Yes, Hanabi?"

"Father says he wants you to return home."

"Thanks, I'll be back in a few minutes."

Hanabi, however, didn't leave. "He also wanted me to remind you that you have dinner with Mr. Kazumuru tomorrow evening."

Hinata rolled her eyes and exhaled deeply. "Thanks." she muttered.

"Is something wrong?" Hanabi asked, eying Hinata curiously. "Mr. Kazumuru is only a year older than you and he's incredibly wealthy. In all honesty, he's also very handsome. You two would make a very respectable couple, I think."

"You wouldn't understand," Hinata grumbled.

"I'm almost sixteen," Hanabi protested with a frown. "I'm not a child."

It was hard to believe that Hanabi, Hinata's younger sister, was already on the cusps of womanhood. She would graduate from the academy next year with honors and would probably be drafted for ANBU or another one of Konoha's special forces programs shortly after. How the time flew by.

"Would you want to marry a complete stranger?" Hinata asked.

"If that was what was good for the family, of course," the younger Hyuga replied promptly. "Besides, he's not a stranger. Father has known their family for years now."

Hinata smiled sadly. "I'll see you at home, Hanabi."

Hanabi gave her a confused look, as if she couldn't comprehend why Hinata was making such a big fuss, but then nodded stiffly and left.

Once her little sister had left, Hinata reclined again, resting her head on the cool stone surface of the city gate.

Shortly after the war had broken out, her father, Hiashi, had discovered that the youngest member of the Hyuga clan, Hanabi, possessed the same kind of prodigious talents that their cousin, Neji, had. As a result, her father had become her mentor, personally overseeing every aspect of her training. From the moment she returned from the academy, he had her training, sharpening her skills for the day she graduated and became a perfect Shinobi warrior. In Hiashi's eyes, Hanabi had the potential to become a Shinobi worthy of the Hyuga name. The same, however, couldn't be said for Hinata.

Always a disappointment in her father, Hinata had decided not to be deployed to the front line as a combat medic and instead elected to work in the hospital. Perhaps in retaliation, Hiashi had begun trying to marry her off to another wealthy family, expressing that at least his daughter might be able to bear strong Shinobi children, even though she wasn't one herself.

There was no lost love between the two ever since Hinata found out that Hiashi had conspired with Danzo to get Naruto flee the village three years ago. While things hadn't gotten any more hostile, they never spoke with each other. When they had breakfast with the rest of the clan, they would just eat in stony silence, refusing to look at each other much less converse. It was all very awkward, but Hinata certainly wasn't prepared to forgive the man who had single handedly ruined her childhood.

Merely thinking of Naruto sent a pang through Hinata's heart. Her chest tightened and it took a moment for her to regain her composure. She dug into her pocket and removed the worn forehead protector that she had found lying on the ground where Naruto had abandoned it when he left the village. Stroking it, feeling the soft fabric between her fingers, comforted her for some reason.

She didn't know how she felt about Naruto. There was no denying that she still had very strong feelings for him –she had been in love with him for almost half her life, after all. But how could you still be in love with someone you didn't even know was alive?

* * *

**Author's Notes:**  
As promised, here's the first chapter of the sequel to a Ninja's Guide to Surviving High School. If you haven't read the prequel, it's probably recommended that you give it a gander (you can find the link in my author's profile), as the sequel is based on its ending. If you don't have the time to read over (which is completely understandable), I'll definitely try and get everyone up to speed in the next few chapters.


	2. Chapter 2: The Cost of War

A Ninja's Guide to Surviving a Shinobi War  
By: JAJapster

Copyright Stuff: I don't own anything in the contents of this story. Please don't republish this story without asking permission. That is all.

Summary:  
Slightly AU –It has been three years since the flames of war engulfed Konoha and the rest of the world, claiming the lives of hundreds of thousands. When Naruto unexpectedly returns, though, he brings with him the key to Konoha's victory: a suicide mission deep behind enemy lines. A squad of Shinobi will leave on a quest to end the war, but none of them will return home the same, if at all.

**Chapter Two: The Cost of War**

Hyuga Neji was fast, too fast for her to naturally time his attacks and counter punch him when he missed. He would weave in, unleash a brutal combination of deadly jabs and chops using the Hyuga clan's trademark style of fighting, and then dance out of range long before she even had a chance to load up her hand canon of a right hand. She had always known Neji was an expert in hand to hand combat, but she hadn't been prepared to deal with his speed when she had agreed to spar with him earlier that day. Already her torso, bared by her form fitting training outfit, was covered in nasty bruises and her lip was trickling blood from where Neji had connected before she had a chance to raise her guard.

Haruno Sakura exhaled deeply and watched as Neji hopped nimbly on the points of his toes. Without warning, he lunged in and stabbed his fingers into Sakura's ribs. She grunted in pain as his attack dug into her flesh and ruptured one of her chakra points, but she gritted her teeth and took a wild swing at Neji's face. She was too slow, of course, and her fist tore through the air fast enough to send a gust of air through Neji's long black hair.

"You're telegraphing your attacks. I can see you cocking your fist back from a mile away." Neji pointed out. "Are you sure you're body is ready for this?"

"Just shut up and fight," Sakura snarled.

Three years had past since Sasuke had tried to kill her. He had almost succeeded. The medics still didn't know how Sakura survived the attack. The gun shot wound was fatal, they told her. Anyone, even a Shinobi, should have died almost instantly. Sakura, however, not only survived being shot in the back, but she had somehow managed to cling on to life long enough for the healers to stabilize her condition.

The road to recovery had not been easy, though. For almost a year she was practically paralyzed from the waist down and it had taken months of intense physical therapy and a number of additional surgeries before she could even walk again. Training, let alone returning to active duty as a Shinobi, had been completely out of the question.

Neji nodded and obliged. Sakura studied his feet closely, hoping to see some kind of hint as to what he was planning, but they betrayed nothing. The Hyuga can Shinobi smashed a closed palm into her stomach, knocking the wind out of her and sending her crashing to her knees.

"Dammit," Sakura snarled in between ragged gulps of air. She slammed her fist into the ground, sending tremors through the earth and splitting it into two.

The doctors all thought that Sakura would never be able to be a Shinobi again, that her injuries would prevent her from being able to deal with the strenuous duties of a Konoha ninja. But Sakura had been determined to prove them all wrong, and after another year and a half of therapy and non-stop training, she had achieved the impossible and gotten re-certified as a Konoha Chunin.

While her wounds had completely healed, her skills had greatly deteriorated and it was frustrating to suddenly find herself being beaten in training by Shinobi who had spent the last several years fighting in the war. It was also unnerving. If Neji, as extraordinarily talented as he was, could defeat her in battle, surely an enemy ninja could do the same. The only difference, of course, was that while Neji would pull his punches to prevent seriously hurting her, a true opponent would not be so merciful.

"We should take a break," said Neji. He was looking at her with an expression that was half concern and half pity. It pissed Sakura off. She was not weak and she definitely did not want anyone's charity.

"No," Sakura said, picking herself back up to her feet. "One more."

Neji shrugged. "Fine. One more."

Sakura kissed the fingerless glove that encased her right hand and once again watched Neji as he danced around her. He was faster than her and technically a better striker. But despite her lithe appearance and thin arms, she was substantially stronger than he was. All she needed was one lucky punch and it would be all over.

"Focus when you throw," instructed Neji. "Concentrate."

But Sakura wasn't worried about her technique. She knew what she had to do. Instead, she pretended that Neji was Sasuke, that traitorous fuck who had promised her that he loved her right before shooting her in the back and leaving her for dead. She pretended Neji's serene features was that prick Sasuke's smug face, and she channeled her desire to bash it into a bloody pulp into her fist.

Again Neji moved in for the kill, but this time, Sakura had no intention of trying to strike with him. She ate the punch, a fierce chop to her kidneys that felt like he plunged a knife into her side, but rather than letting her hands go like she normally would, she grabbed Neji's arm and pulled him into her. Neji, suddenly realizing the danger of his predicament, tried to pull away, but Sakura was much too strong. Her chakra was flowing through her arms, giving her the supernatural strength that allowed her to effortlessly break rocks in half.

She switched her grip, grabbing the back of Neji's head with both her hands, and slammed a knee into Neji's stomach. He tried to defend, so Sakura twisted him to the side and this time her knee connected with Neji's jaw. She finally released her clinch, allowing Neji to reel backwards, but she wasn't in the mood to allow him to recover. She chased after him, peppering him one punch after another. A few of them connected solidly, rocking Neji's head backwards and bloodying his nose, but Sakura noticed with alarm that he was also beginning to block quite a few of them.

He was starting to regain his senses, something that Sakura couldn't allow. She had caught him off guard and if she didn't capitalize on the opportunity, she might never get it again. With a wordless yell, Sakura brought back her fist, ready to plant it flush on Neji's chin and knock him out cold.

Before she could, though, Neji's palm shot forward, faster than Sakura could see, and hit her right in the chest. It felt like someone had struck her with a gigantic hammer. Pain exploded in her chest, radiating throughout her entire body, and the force of the blow picked her off her feet and sent her flying through the air. She didn't even feel the impact when her paralyzed form hit the ground and skidded to a stop several feet away. A piercing noise was resonating in her ears, sending agonizing vibrations through her skull, and her vision was a blurry mess with black dots dancing across her eyes.

She did, however, recognize Neji's face as he looked down at her.

"OK," Sakura gasped. "Now we can take a break."

* * *

The mission had gone even worse than Shikamaru had expected, a disconcerting abnormality considering he thought he always approached each assignment as pessimistically as possible. Somehow, everything that could have possibly gone wrong went even more disastrously than previously conceived. They had landed in the wrong spot and had been forced to hunt through the woods for several hours before they accidentally stumbled upon the lost platoon. By then, the sun was already rising and its rays were like a search light honing in on their position. They didn't have the luxury of waiting for the cover of darkness again, so instead Shikamaru had made the call to move out immediately and hope they got lucky while retreating and went undetected by the enemy.

They weren't.

The second the platoon had broken cover, a hailstorm of machine gun fire rained down on them. Mortars and artillery followed shortly after, bombarding the fleeing soldiers with a torrential downpour from hell. Half of the survivors were killed almost instantly. Shikamaru got a large chunk of shrapnel in his leg and was forced to limp the two miles to safety. The soldier they were ordered to recover, the councilman's nephew, had almost made it.

They had practically sprinted through the forest, dodging gunfire and explosions as they ran, while the footsteps of their pursuers thundered ominously behind them. Shikamaru had left some booby traps behind to slow down the soldiers from Earth and Lightening, but they did little to impede the progress of what sounded to be a hundred troops who badly wanted to kill them.

Just before they reached the edge of the forest where ally helicopters were waiting to cover their escape, a bullet had burst through the trees and hit the poor boy right through the heart. He had collapsed, mortally wounded but not quite dead yet, and Ino had slung him over her shoulder and carried him the rest of the way. The enemy had retreated back into the woods once they realized they were in range of Konoha forces, but that still left an agonizingly long hike back to their camp.

When they finally arrived, Shikamaru didn't even have the strength to complain about the medics' rough treatment as they patched up his wounded leg. While the nurse dug out the metal fragment embedded in his thigh, he watched as the surgeons tried in vain to rescue his assignment's life. It was a futile but necessary gesture given his important family relations, and a few minutes later Shikamaru saw them wheel the poor kid past on a blanket covered stretcher.

All in all it had been a pretty shitty day.

Shikamaru winced as he walked down the aisle of tents that housed Konoha's forces. His wounds would heal quicker than a normal person's due to his chakra, but he would still have to take care to nurse it for the next couple days so as to not reopen the wound. At the very least, it would give him an excuse to sit on the inactive roster for a little while and get some much needed rest. He and Ino had been deployed on mission after mission without break for what seemed to be an eternity, and he knew both of them desperately wanted the chance to recuperate.

It wasn't just the scratches, bruises and broken bones that were progressively beginning to take their toll on him. It was also the mental trauma from the days of gunshots ringing in his ears, explosions detonating mere feet away from his head and the pervasive, rancid stench of blood and rotting flesh that was beginning to gradually weather his psyche.

He found Ino sitting on a cot in the tent that they shared. She didn't look at him when he folded up the flap and walked in, and she continued staring wordlessly at the wall when he sat down beside her.

"You OK?" he asked, gently resting his hand on hers.

There were dried tears staining her cheek and her eyes were red and swollen. "No." she whispered, her hands trembling.

"What's wrong?" Shikamaru eyed her with concern. He noticed that she hadn't changed out of her uniform, which was now stained in blood.

"I-I could hear his thoughts the entire time..." she whispered, her voice a bare, trembling whisper. "The entire time I was carrying that kid back, even though he was unconscious, I could hear him screaming in my mind."

Ino's gift, like the rest of the Yamanaka clan, was the ability to read and control minds. Unfortunately, that also meant that she sometimes heard things that she would rather filter out, like the thoughts of a wounded young man as he slowly died a prolonged, painful death.

"What did he say?"

"H-he wanted to go home..." she replied, fresh tears welling up in her eyes. "H-he was calling out for his mother and telling her how much he loved her."

"I'm so sorry, Ino," Shikamaru said, hugging her close to him and letting her cry freely into his shoulder.

He wished he could say this was the first time this had happened, but it wasn't. In fact, it was common for Ino to break down like this after every other mission. When she had to tend to the wounded, all she could hear was how their screams for mercy. When she was in the heat of battle, killing with all the ferociousness that her training had taught her, all she could see was the wives and children of the men whose existences she was snuffing out like a candle. Their memories, happy and sad, became hers, and Shikamaru could only imagine how much guilt she felt for taking their lives.

"I-I wish I didn't have my powers," she sobbed. "I wish I wasn't a ninja."

Shikamaru looked at his hands. Underneath his fingernails were stained with dirt, but there was also traces of blood. None of it was his own. During their retreat from the forest, he had had to kill more than a few enemy soldiers in order to clear a path.

"Yeah," Shikamaru replied. "Me too."

* * *

Author's Notes:

Thank you to everyone who reviewed the first chapter of A Ninja's Guide to Surviving a Shinobi War. It's done pretty well in hits, so I'll continue on and see how things go. As always, if you want to read more or see chapters get written quicker, please be sure to drop even a quick review if you can. I have a job and all that sort of good stuff, so it's really, really hard to find the time to sit down and write. Thank you for your support and patience!


	3. Chapter 3: The Ones We Lost

A Ninja's Guide to Surviving a Shinobi War  
By: JAJapster

Copyright Stuff: I don't own anything in the contents of this story. Please don't republish this story without asking permission. That is all.

Summary:  
Slightly AU –It has been three years since the flames of war engulfed Konoha and the rest of the world, claiming the lives of hundreds of thousands. When Naruto unexpectedly returns, though, he brings with him the key to Konoha's victory: a suicide mission deep behind enemy lines. A squad of Shinobi will leave on a quest to end the war, but none of them will return home the same, if at all.

**Chapter Three: The Ones We Lost**

Neji and Sakura had parted ways once their scheduled sparring session was completed for the night. He had invited her to join him and Tenten for a late dinner, but Sakura had respectfully declined, claiming that she had some paperwork to finish up at the hospital where she was interning as a healer before she retired for the evening. She was lying of course, but as much as she appreciated Neji's kind gesture, she had no need for his pity and no desire to be a burden on one of the rare dates that the two could enjoy while temporarily stationed in Konoha.

Sakura suspected Tenten made Neji invite her because she felt sorry for her. After all, there was no man in Sakura's life and there hadn't been one in over three years.

Not that there hadn't been offers. Sakura had been approached several times over the last few years, but the prospect of dating again didn't appeal to her. Maybe it had something to do with the fact that the last time she had suitors vying for her affection, one of them had tried to kill her and the other...

Sakura winced as she limped down the road leading back to her parent's home. The sparring session with Neji had left her bloody and bruised, and she knew her physical therapist would be furious to find out that she had been training again.

Sakura hated being cooped up indoors, though; sitting around complacently while the world moved on without her. Even though the punches and kicks could potentially undo years of intense healing from her near death experience, they made her feel more alive than she had ever since that fateful night at the winter dance.

The path she had selected to walk home on wasn't the most direct, as it went around the village and through the forest, but it passed through an area that Sakura enjoyed stopping by for a few moments when she had the chance.

A large marble structure had been constructed amidst the trees long before Sakura was born. It was called the memorial stone, a polished, granite monument that bore the name of every Shinobi that had fallen in the service of Konoha.

When Sakura had first seen the memorial stone as a student at Konoha High, only half of the it had been filled by the names of those who had made the ultimate sacrifice while defending the village. Now, though, nearly the entire front was covered and new names were being added daily as the list of causalities came in. It wouldn't be long until a new monument had to be built.

Sakura stopped in front of the memorial stone and looked up at it, her eyes scanning the list of slain Shinobi. On previous visits, she had been dismayed to find that she recognized far too many of the new names that were being added.

For instance, Naruto's old school friend, Kyo, had perished while defending one of Konoha's many border villages. Shortly after he had arrived to help evacuate civilians, the village had been leveled by a deadly artillery strike, killing Kyo and over 3,000 villagers who hadn't made it out in time.

Another name Sakura recognized was Asuka, the fiery haired archer. She had died when a helicopter she had been riding in was shot down by a missile while on a routine patrol. She never stood a chance –the recovery team hadn't even been able to find her body for identification.

The tragic news of their friends' death had hit Sakura's class hard, especially Kiba who had dated Asuka briefly

Sakura's fingers traced over the names carved into the stone, silently whispering each one aloud as her hand moved back and forth across the monument. Near the bottom of it, though, Sakura paused when she noticed a new name had been added since her last visit a few weeks ago.

Uzumaki Naruto.

It wasn't the first time she had seen her friend's name appear on the tablet. Every six months or so, a rumor would come in that Naruto's body had been recovered in some distant land. However, shortly after his name was added to the memorial stone, a new report would claim that the blond haired Shinobi hiding on the opposite side of the world.

The most recent report by Konoha's spy network, which had been issued earlier that week, said that Naruto had been killed when Frost Country fell to the enemy. Sakura knew better than to trust it, though, especially since their spies had proven to be unreliable so many times before.

It was entirely possible that Naruto was dead; that he had been killed by injury, illness or one of the countless other dangers that resided beyond the walls of Konoha. She had no reason to believe otherwise aside from the feeling in her gut that told her he was safe. Deep down inside, Sakura knew that Naruto was still alive out there somewhere.

Sakura enjoyed thinking about Naruto as little as she did about Sasuke. It wasn't that she reserved for him the same kind of hatred she had for Sasuke, but every time she found the perpetually smiling, goofy Shinobi from her childhood entering her thoughts, an intense sadness would overwhelm her. Thinking of Naruto rekindled fond memories and feelings that Sakura would always treasure, but it also reopened wounds that time had yet to heal.

She wanted to forget about what happened three years ago and move on with life, but it was easier said than done, especially when the scars she bore from Sasuke's attack were a constant reminder of a perfect life of happy innocence that had been viciously stolen from her.

Sakura looked up into the night sky, her eyes counting each star as they flickered majestically against the dark backdrop. She hoped that somewhere out there Naruto was enjoying the same sight she was, counting the same stars and thinking of her also. More than anything, though, she prayed he was still alive.

* * *

As Hyuga Hinata stared wearily at her date while he continued to yap on and on about the latest, expensive trinket that his father had lavished upon him, all she could think about was how utterly bored she was. She struggled to resist rolling her eyes and stifled the urge to yawn, and instead nodded her head, feigning interest in whatever her rich suitor was trying to impress her with.

It had been this way all night. From the moment that she had arrived at one of Konoha's most opulent and luxurious restaurants for her arranged date, Hinata had had to summon all the calming techniques from her Shinobi training to avoid going insane.

"That's fascinating," Hinata said, hoping her date, a wealthy merchant's son named Kazumuru Taro, wouldn't realize her voiced conveyed the absolute opposite. He didn't, of course and continued chattering about some new sports car that he had recently purchased using his family's enormous wealth.

If there was one thing nobles enjoyed more than their wealth it was flaunting it in front of others. Hinata, however, had absolutely no interest in how large Taro's bank account was or how many islands his family owned. She knew her family was wealthy, but unlike Taro and so many of the other noble families that Hinata's father fraternized with, she refused to allow money to define who she was.

Hinata toyed with her wine and tried to forget about how miserable she was.

Maybe all dates were as boring as this one, she thought glumly.

Hinata didn't have a wealth of dating experience to compare it to. In fact, the last date she had gone on had been with Naruto, and that one ended with their instructor forcibly hauling him out of a ramen shop and dragging him down the street back to the hospital. It might not have been ideal, but it definitely had been far more exciting than her night so far...

"So what do you think?" Taro asked suddenly.

"What's that?" Hinata asked. If she had been even slightly interested in Taro, she might have actually been embarrassed that she had been caught not paying attention.

It wasn't that Taro was a bad person. He was polite, good looking and had even pulled out Hinata's chair for her, but he was just so bland in comparison to all the other boy's Hinata had ever known. While her other guys friends, like Naruto, Kiba, Shikimaru and Neji, were out risking their lives for the safety of Konoha, Taro was being groomed to inherit his family's oil and fishing empire.

Taro smiled, evidently still oblivious to how uninterested Hinata was, and said, "What do you think about getting married at the end of summer?"

"What?" Hinata exclaimed far louder than she had anticipated. A few heads turned to see what the ruckus was about, and Hinata waited a few mortifying seconds before leaning over the table and hissing, "What the hell are you talking about? Married? To you?"

Taro's smile faded. "Well, yes, Hinata," he said stiffly. "This dinner was to become acquainted in preparation for our arranged marriage. Surely you knew what your father..."

"Surely I didn't!" Hinata snapped. She wasn't sure if she should be more angry or confused that her father had dared to give away her hand in marriage without so much as consulting her, so she settled for a mixture of both that, fortunately, seemed to intimidate Taro.

"I-I'm sorry," stuttered Taro. "I thought you would have known."

"N-no, it's not your fault," Hinata replied softly. She almost felt bad for poor Taro. He might be pompous, elitist windbag, but it wasn't his fault that she was being blindsided by this horrific news. "Let me use the washroom for a moment, and then we can discuss this like adults."

"Please do," replied Taro with a nervous laugh, visibly relieved that Hinata no longer looked like she was ready to tear his head off. "Yes, I'm sure we can work out any confusion like two grown-ups."

Hinata quickly excused herself and practically fled to the women's restroom. She slammed the door shut, locked it and exhaled deeply. Her hands were trembling and she suddenly felt the urge to start crying, if only out of anger and frustration.

She supposed it wasn't all that surprising that her father would try to spring this on her without any warning. Maybe he thought that she would be so shocked by the news that she would just go along with his plan to marry her off to one of the wealthiest men in Konoha without too much of an argument. He had never taken her opinion into consideration whenever he made a life choice for her –why would marriage be any different?

For a fleeting moment, Hinata considered turning around, walking back outside and discussing her future with Taro. It was like he said: they were grown-ups. Surely they could work out their differences like the civilized mature adults that their parents were expecting them to be. If Hinata did that, she could marry Taro, have children and live an incredibly luxurious, normal life devoid of killer ninjas or boyfriends possessed by nightmarish demons.

But then Hinata noticed the bathroom had an open window leading into an alley behind the restaurant.

"Forget that," Hinata muttered as she climbed up on a sink and then slithered her lithe form through the small opening. One of these days she would act like an adult and address all of her problems like one, but tonight was definitely not that night.

* * *

**Author's Notes:**

Apologies for the delay! The next chapters will come much quicker! Promise!


	4. Chapter 4: Strangers in the Night

A Ninja's Guide to Surviving a Shinobi War  
By: JAJapster

Copyright Stuff: I don't own anything in the contents of this story. Please don't republish this story without asking permission. That is all.

Summary:  
Slightly AU –It has been three years since the flames of war engulfed Konoha and the rest of the world, claiming the lives of hundreds of thousands. When Naruto unexpectedly returns, though, he brings with him the key to Konoha's victory: a suicide mission deep behind enemy lines. A squad of Shinobi will leave on a quest to end the war, but none of them will return home the same, if at all.

**Chapter Four: Strangers in the Night**

The nightmare that had plagued the sleep of Haruno Sakura for the last three years was always the same. It began with her and Sasuke standing in the middle of that deserted, snowy field in the Forest of Death where she had last seen him. Her trembling, slender form was wrapped passionately in his strong arms, reveling in the security and comfort that only a mighty warrior from the famed Uchiha clan could provide.

In retrospect, Sakura knew the gesture to be a mocking one, a cruel parody that embodied the farcical nature of their relationship and romance, but at that moment, she believed there was no place safer where she could be than in Sasuke's warm embrace.

"I'm sorry," Sasuke whispered.

His words echoed, repeating itself over and over, each time with increasing volume until the sound of Sasuke's voice resonated deafeningly in her ears.

"I'm sorry…"

Then there was the gunshot and the dull sensation of pain in her abdomen as the trigger was pulled and a bullet tore through her stomach. She dropped to her knees, staring disbelieving at Sasuke's cold, remorseless features as the pistol slipped from his fingers and landed beside her body.

"Why?" she whispered weakly. Her eyes closed for a moment, but when they opened, a different face was staring down at her. Gone was Sasuke's emotionless face, replaced by the compassionate, glowing cerulean eyes that Sakura knew belonged to only one man.

"I'm sorry…" whispered Uzumaki Naruto.

* * *

At first, Sakura thought it had been the nightmare that caused her to awake with a start, drenched in sweat and her heart thundering through her chest. But as she took several deep breaths to calm herself down, she became aware of the high pitched ringing noise that filled her apartment. Her phone glowed on the nightstand beside her bed, vibrating furiously until Sakura picked it with an irritated snarl.

"What?" Sakura demanded.

"Sorry for the early call Sergeant Haruno," a voice on the other end of the line said. "But General Hatake has ordered all active personnel to meet at the city gates at 0300 hours to await further instructions."

"What for?" Sakura glanced at her clock, which read 2:50 a.m. "This had better not be a goddamn drill."

"No, ma'm. There's been a security breach."

That was all Sakura had to hear. She hung up her phone, threw back her blanket and began frantically grabbing her clothes. Her normal uniform couldn't be easily located in the dark, so she hastily threw on the first thing she could find before slipping on her flack vest over her mismatched attire and bolting out the door.

A security breach was no small matter. Ever since the war broke out, no one had managed to infiltrate Konoha's security. The enemy had tried on numerous occasions, using all manners of espionage and subterfuge, but all attempts had been thwarted long before they posed a threat to the village. Konoha's security network was ironclad, meaning that only someone with intimate knowledge of the village and its defenses would have a prayer of bypassing it undetected.

Unfortunately, the list of Konoha's renegade Shinobi was not a short one and every entry on it merited extreme caution. If someone had managed to sneak into Konoha successfully, it was undoubtedly a ninja of great power and skill.

It only took Sakura a few minutes to traverse the network of rooftops leading from her apartment to the city gate, and waiting for her arrival was a small group of soldiers. Three of them wore the uniform and masks of ANBU commandos. They were lead by Sakura's former instructor, the silver-haired General Hatake Kakashi. The rest of the soldiers, though, Sakura were equipped in the conventional armor and assault rifles of village military. One of them, a large, heavily scarred man wearing a bandana, stood out from the others and glowered at Sakura menacingly as she walked over to join them.

"It's about damn time," he growled.

"Thank you for joining us, Sakura," Kakashi said. He gestured to the scarred man. "This is Colonel Inoue of the Shinobi Suppression Squadron."

"Oh," was all Sakura said.

Shinobi traditionally comprised the entirety of a nation's armed forces. A force of non-Shinobi equipped with weapons, whether it be swords or guns, were normally kept on hand to settle domestic issues and support in case of emergency, but the supernatural powers of the ninja made their combat effectiveness limited. Now that the world was plunged into war, though, normal villagers were quickly becoming a vital component the battlefield. Their weapons, such as rifles, jets and tanks, were still no match for a skilled Shinobi, but in numbers they were still a force to be reckoned with.

The majority of skirmishes on the front lines were between villagers who had dug trenches into the ground. Machine gun, artillery and mortar fire were exchanged regularly, with jets periodically soaring by overhead to drop bombs on enemy positions.

Shinobi, however, could make or break a battle. They could slay a dozen soldiers in the blink of an eye, they could slip behind enemy lines and assassinate a general, or they could summon a giant monster to support them on the field and raise morale. In fact, whenever a Shinobi was spotted, it was common practice for soldiers to focus their fire exclusively on them in the hopes of somehow taking them out before they caused too much damage.

That was why the Shinobi Suppression Squadron, or the Triple-S as they liked to be called, was formed. They were combat hardened men and women who were trained specifically to hunt down Shinobi. Their weapons were state-of-the-art, and it was rumored that they even had tools that could actual suppress a ninja's Chakra –their power source –making them easier to kill.

Though technically they were on the same side, there was definite tension between the Shinobi and the Triple-S. After all, it was a ninja's job to create techniques to overpower enemy Triple-S agents and kill them, and it was the Triple-S operative's goal to exploit the weakness of enemy Shinobi's and terminate them.

"Why are they here?" Sakura asked. "We can handle this."

Colonel Inoue scowled at her. "Orders from the Minister of Security himself. Seems like he wants to make sure this job is done right."

"We're working together on this," Kakashi said diplomatically before Sakura could interject angrily. "As you might have been told, we detected a security breach a few minutes ago. A single infiltrator managed to bypass our defense network and is currently in the village."

"How'd they get through?"

"A secret passageway through the hot springs," replied Kakashi. "Only a handful of people know about it, and it's only by chance that one of our security cameras caught the suspect sneaking in. We don't know if he's a Shinobi or just a spy, so we haven't raised the general alarm yet. However, we're under strict orders to detain the suspect immediately."

"Our orders are to terminate the threat," corrected Colonel Inoue.

"As I mentioned before, Colonel," Kakashi said, a slight hint of anger evident in his voice. "I want him alive so we can interrogate him."

The colonel shrugged. "We have jurisdiction over this matter, and if he resists, we're putting him down." As if to emphasize the point, he patted the assault rifle that was slung across his chest. It glistened ominously in the moonlight.

Sakura knew all too well that conventional firearms could kill Shinobi. It was often impossible to shoot a Shinobi, as most could dodge incoming gunfire with ease, but a single bullet in the right spot could be as deadly to a ninja as any other human. It was only by a miracle that Sakura had survived when Sasuke shot her –Shinobi, after all, were not invincible.

"Wait," Sakura asked. "If Triple-S has jurisdiction over this, why was I brought here?"

"Because," Kakashi said. "We think the infiltrator is an old friend of ours: Uzumaki Naruto."

The mere mention of his name was normally enough to make Sakura pause, but this time she froze, her mouth still halfway open, an exclamation of surprise and disbelief on the tip of her tongue. For three, long, painful years she had yearned to hear that Naruto had finally returned home to Konoha, but now that the moment had come; she wasn't sure how to react to the news.

Fortunately, Kakashi did. He placed his hand on her shoulder, jarring her back to reality. "Sakura," he said, softly but sternly. "You have to remember that Naruto is no longer your ally. He is no longer your friend. He is a renegade Shinobi, an enemy of the village, and you need to be prepared to kill him if you need to. Do you think you can do that?"

"Y-yeah, sure," she replied, hoping her voice conveyed greater conviction than she felt. She had subconsciously always been aware that Naruto was considered an enemy of the state –his face and Sasuke's were still prominently featured in every Bingo book – but never had it occurred to her that she might actually have to fight him. "But why do you think it's Naruto? Couldn't any renegade ninja from Konoha know about the secret passageway?"

"Because we tracked the intruder to a local noodle shop," barked Colonel Inoue. "It's called…"

Sakura didn't have to wait for the colonel to finish his sentence. She knew exactly what ramen bar he was talking about. Though she hadn't eaten there in years, she remembered it all too well because it had been Naruto's favorite restaurant in all of Konoha.

"Ichiraku Ramen," she whispered.


	5. Chapter 5: Preparing the Siege

A Ninja's Guide to Surviving a Shinobi War  
By: JAJapster

Copyright Stuff: I don't own anything in the contents of this story. Please don't republish this story without asking permission. That is all.

Summary:  
Slightly AU –It has been three years since the flames of war engulfed Konoha and the rest of the world, claiming the lives of hundreds of thousands. When Naruto unexpectedly returns, though, he brings with him the key to Konoha's victory: a suicide mission deep behind enemy lines. A squad of Shinobi will leave on a quest to end the war, but none of them will return home the same, if at all.

**Chapter Five: Preparing the Siege **

If it weren't for the solitary light glowing in the window of Ichiraku Ramen hours after it had closed for the evening, Sakura wouldn't have thought anything amiss. The streets were empty and the cool night air was still and quiet, save for the shuffling of boots as the ANBU and Triple-S agents took their positions around the shop.

The ANBU soldiers waited in absolute silence, their emotions disguised behind their animal masks, but the Triple-S commandos were eying the ramen bar hungrily and with obvious impatience. Each of them were fiddling with their weapons or checking their tactical vests to make sure a spare clip or grenade was in easy reach, just waiting for the order to be given so they could unleash hell.

"What's our target doing?" demanded Colonel Inoue. Kakashi had stationed one of his men on a building across the street where he was looking into the ramen through a telescopic scope.

"Sitting at a table and eating a bowl of ramen," answered Kakashi.

"Is it your man?"

Kakashi shrugged. "He's wearing a hood. We can't tell."

"Then we're going in hard," replied the scarred colonel. "We shoot to kill. You and your people better stand back, General."

"I wouldn't advise that," said Kakashi. "If this ninja is who we think he is, your men won't stand a chance."

Colonel Inoue rounded on Kakashi, hate blazing in his eyes, and stabbed a finger into the master Jounin's chest. Only a mad man would dare be so disrespectful to a general, especially one as notorious as Hatake Kakashi, but Sakura knew just by looking at Colonel Inoue that craziness was one thing he certainly didn't lack.

"My men," Colonel Inoue spat viciously. "Are trained to eradicate any Shinobi scumbag they have the privilege of seeing in their scopes. We're going in, we're killing him and that's final! If you have a problem with that, take it up with the Minister of Defense."

And with that, he stormed off to join the rest of his soldiers in preparing their assault.

Once Sakura was sure the angry colonel was out of earshot, she turned to Kakashi and asked, "What's his problem? Why does he hate us so much?"

"Don't judge the colonel too harshly," Kakashi said, much to Sakura's surprise. There was gentleness in Kakashi's eyes as he turned his gaze upon the huddled group of Triple-S soldiers –sympathy perhaps? "The Shinobi are not the only ones who have lost loved ones throughout this war, you know."

"How do you mean?"

"The colonel's family –his wife and three children - was killed in the surprise on attack on Konoha three years ago," replied Kakashi. "He tried to have them evacuated to safety while he helped coordinate the village's defenses, but he was too late."

"What does that have to do with the Shinobi?" Sakura demanded. It was sad that the colonel's family had perished in the attack, but so had thousands of other villagers. Sakura's parents were almost killed; if it hadn't been for Naruto, she would probably have been orphaned.

"Because the colonel and so many others believe that the only reason we're at war is because of the Shinobi," stated Kakashi simply. "They believe our arrogance and blood thirsty nature is responsible for all the deaths and all the destruction."

"That's insanity," snapped Sakura.

"Is it?" the master Jounin asked, raising an eyebrow inquiringly.

Sakura found that she didn't have an answer. As much as she hated to admit it, there was some truth to the accusation. It was exaggerated and hardly warranted the hostile prejudice, but after all, wasn't it Sasuke who betrayed the village and helped orchestrate the surprise attack that resulted in the slaughter of thousands of innocent? And wasn't there evidence that a renegade Shinobi from the Hidden Village of Sand had been directly responsible for the assault on the gymnasium that killed dozens of students?

But at the same time, it was only because of Konoha Shinobi that they were able to repel the attack as quickly as they had. Without them, countless more lives would have been lost. The entire village might have burned had it not been for the ninjas who sacrificed their lives fighting the invaders.

Instead of replying to her former Instructor's question, she gestured back towards the colonel and his men. "Aren't you going to stop them? If it's actually Naruto, somebody is going to get killed!"

"What makes you think Naruto would kill anybody?"

Kakashi might have had only one visible eye, but Sakura thought it amazing how piercingly deep his gaze could penetrate her soul. However, she would not be flustered, which she knew to be Kakashi's intention.

"You said it yourself," Sakura said. "Naruto is a renegade Shinobi. He left the village and is the enemy now. Don't we have to assume the worst?"

The master Jounin shrugged. "I guess we're about to find out."

* * *

Very short chapter, I know. Really sorry about that, but I just started a new job and, unfortunately, I really don't have much time to write as much as I want to. Thanks for your patience and understanding, and I'll definitely try to update the story when I can.


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